He paused,--there was a curious stillness in the room,--many eyes were lowered, and M. le Duc's composure was evidently not quite so absolute as usual.
"Taken at its best"--he continued--"the world alone is certainly not worth fighting for;--we see the fact exemplified every day in the cases of those who, surrounded by all that a fair fortune can bestow upon them, deliberately hurl themselves out of existence by their own free will and act,--indeed, suicide is a very general accompaniment of Agnosticism. And self-slaughter, though it may be called madness, is far more often the result of intellectual misery."
"Of course, too much learning breeds brain disease"--remarked Dr. Mudley sententiously--"but only in weak subjects,--and in my opinion the weak are better out of the world. We've no room for them nowadays."
"You say truly, sir,"--replied Alwyn--"we have no room for them, and no patience! They show themselves feeble, and forthwith the strong oppress them;--they can hope for little comfort here, and less help. It is well, therefore, that some of these 'weak' should still believe in God, since they can certainly pin no faith on the justice of their fellow-man! But I cannot agree with you that much learning breeds brain disease. Provided the learning be accompanied by a belief in the Supreme Wisdom,--provided every step of study be taken upward toward that Source of all Knowledge,--one cannot learn too much, since hope increases with discernment, and on such food the brain grows stronger, healthier, and more capable of high effort. But dispense with the Spirit of the Whole, and every movement, though it SEEM forward, is in truth BACKWARD;--study involves bewilderment,--science becomes a reeling infinitude of atoms, madly whirling together for no purpose save death, or, at the best, incessant Change, in which mortal life is counted as nothing:--and Nature frowns at us, a vast Question, to which there is no Answer,--an incomprehensible Force, against which wretched Man, gifted with all manner of splendid and Godlike capacities, battles forever and forever in vain! This is the terrible material lesson you would have us learn to-day, the lesson that maddens pupil and teacher alike, and has not a glimmer of consolation to offer to any living soul! What a howling wilderness this world would be if given over entirely to Materialism!--Scarce a line of division could be drawn between men and the brute beasts of the field! I consider,--though possibly I am only one among many of widely differing opinion,--that if you take the hope of an after-joy and blessedness away from the weary, perpetually toiling Million, you destroy at one wanton blow their best, purest, and noblest aspirations. As for the Christian Religion, I cannot believe that so grand and holy a Symbol is perishing among us,--we have a monarch whose title is 'Defender of the Faith,'--we live in an age of civilization which is primarily the result of that faith,--and if, as this gentleman assures me," --and he made a slight, courteous inclination toward his opposite neighbor--"Christianity is exploded,--then certainly the greatness of this hitherto great nation is exploding with it! But I do not think that because a few skeptics uplift their wailing 'All is vanity' from their self-created desert of Agnosticism, THEREFORE the majority of men and women are turning renegades from the simplest, most humane, most unselfish Creed that ever the world has known. It may be so,--but, at present, I prefer to trust in the higher spiritual instincts of man at his best, rather than accept the testimony of the lesser Unbelieving against the greater Many, whose strength, comfort, patience, and endurance, if these virtues come not from God, come not at all."